pierce27rn

I work on mixed unit,(step down, renal, and alot of hem/onc) 7p-8a, you are giving chemo, blood, antibiotics, pain control, spinal taps, bone marrow aspiration, conscious sedation, central lines and etc. You get attached to the kids and there families because some of them are admited alot for different things. They do try to do a lot outpatient so everyone can be home. Sometimes you are very busy doing all that needs to be done and sometimes you wish you were, because there's nothing left to be done and you just sit and wait. Do it , it sounds like you are used to working hard and you love kids the rest will come . You'll never know until you try. Good Luck

I see no problem with a nap on your break(especially if you work 12.5or 13 hrs) as long as your patients are covered and you come back on time so everyone else as the same opportunity and you don't do it at the desk. We don't get paid for our breaks and even when we don't take them we don't get paid for that time which is more often than not the case. Those of us who work nights don't usually get proper rest during the day for any number of reasons, well rested people are less prone to mistakes and more alert so a little rest might be life saving to that nurse's patients and cost effective to the hospital in terms of avoiding errors and lawsuits.

When the hospital can call you at 1pm to ask you if you can come in to help out days but when night shift is drowning they aren't allowed to call anyone from days until 7am:confused:

:saint: I used to work at a hospital that had peds genetics as one of its subspeciality clinics. Most of the nurses who worked there started out as peds nurses(still are). I would think that getting some peds experience under your belt then followed by the genetics would be better to your practice so you would understand the medical as well as psycho-social after all they are kids first and formost who happen to have a genetic disorder. Best of Luck with your pursuit and your son, many of my co-workers have children with chronic illnesses and they are fantastic with the parents and kids because of their unique understanding of their situations. I'm sure you'll do great!!!!!!!!!

:selfbonk: Night shift is not for the faint of heart, unfortunately if you do it long enough it is hell on your heart not to mention the rest of your body and any family or social life you may have. Many of us in order to see our loved ones on our days off or to get any thing accomplished stay up well over 24 hours. For many of us turning off the phone is not an option due to potential family emergencies Call block is an option but the telemarketers are getting smart in their ways around it and yes we can ignore it and I usually do but it is still disturbing. Not to mention the phone calls from family and friends that you answer because your psyic powers haven't been developed yet. My favorite is the 12 noon call (I work 7p-8a) when I have to go back to work that night, Did you work last night night, Oh I sorry, this won't take long and an hour later they're still talking , cant yell at them or be rude because it's usually Mom or something important that you need to know about and doing so just destroys any good karma you had for the night.

I totally forgot about the respiratory therapists, and considering alot of peds involves a resp issue that's really important. Please don't rule out peds like Josie said a larger peds unit in a community hosp with other Peds staff around would also be good. You just need to have that back up for safety reasons I don't care who you are an emergency can happen at any time and nurses are human things can be missed it's always good to have back up . I've had some really nice experiences in community hospitals but safety has got to come first for everyone's sake. Best Of Luck

For those who have a great working relationship with management that's wonderful and I am happy to hear that such hospitals exist but for those of us who don't work in such a place, unions sometimes (not always) help , especially for those of us who have been working in a place for a period of time and have accumulated pensions and other benefits some places would love to not pay those hard working folks what they were originally promised and for those with families moving from place to place is not always an option. Yes we are professionals but professionals need to take care of themselves first before they can take care of somebody else, just like what they tell you about the o2 mask before you take off , give to your self first then you can take care of somebody else effectively

I also would really think twice about it, even though your place sends the really bad kids out, who's going to take care of them until transport comes. Little ones can change in a very short period of time especially during Rsv season and sometimes you need someone else to get a second opinion from. Unfortunately unless your nursing sups are peds nurses they are not going to be able to help you really and tele nurses will run the other way. Also when kids get admitted who will be starting the IVs, doing blood work, and spinal taps( which should be done on most babies especially very young presenting with fever) all these things under the best of circumstances do take alot of time and while you are attending to one patient whose taking care of the others, a nursing assistant is not an acceptable option especially if a child needs to be medicated or another emergency develops. My advice to you as a peds nurse for 15 yrs in a childrens hosp and community hosp, is if you want to switch to peds switch hospitals and get a couple of years exp, but to be honest as an exp peds nurse I would not be at all comfortable with that situation. I worked at a small comm. hosp. where our unit was small ( in the summer we sometimes had 1 pt) but we always had 2 nurses . I wish you well in your quest!!!